December 2012 Reads

Completing the string here.  Read 55 books this month, only a few of them re-reads (most of those being epic poetry on the Matter of France/Roland/Orlando).  It's a bit late, so onto the list of December reads:

447  Ian Cameron Esslemont, Blood and Bone (already reviewed)

448  Steven Erikson, The Crippled God (re-read; already reviewed)

449  John Brandon, A Million Heavens (decent, but not very good, read)

450  Tim Powers, Hide Me Among the Graves (lesser sequel to his very good The Stress of Her Regard)

451  Jeffrey Ford, Crackpot Palace (collection; very good; made some of my year-end lists/honorable mentions)

452  Bruno Schulz, The Street of Crocodiles and Other Stories (already reviewed)

453  Mark Jarman, Bone Fires (poetry; very good)

454  Tim Pratt, Antinquities and Tangibles and Other Stories (collection; good; received this e-book due to contributing to his Kickstarter earlier this year)

455  Katie Ward, Girl Reading (very good debut)

456  Nir Yaniv, The Love Machine & Other Contraptions (very good translated story collection)

457  William Faulkner, Novels 1936-1940 (already reviewed all parts except for The Hamlet, review forthcoming for it)

458  Zadie Smith, NW (very good; made year-end list)

459  William Faulkner, Uncollected Stories (may review more of the individual stories later)

460  Goran Petrović, An Atlas Described by the Sky (review forthcoming)

461  Sherman Alexie, Blasphemy (outstanding story collection; made year-end lists)

462  Amos Tutuola, Don't Pay Bad for Bad (collection; review forthcoming)

463  Einhard and Notker the Stammerer, Two Lives of Charlemagne (re-read; non-fiction; very good)

464  Anonymous, La Chanson de Roland (French; poetry; outstanding)

465  Anonymous, The Song of Roland (re-read; poetry; outstanding)

466  Bertrand de Bar-Sur-Aube, The Song of Girart of Vienne (re-read; poetry; very good)

467  Anonymous, L'Entrée d'Espagne, Part I (French; poetry; good)

468  Anonymous, L'Entrée d'Espagne, Part II (French; poetry; good)

469  Luigi Pulci, Morgante (Italian; poetry; excellent)

470  Luigi Pulci, Morgante (re-read; poetry; excellent)

471  Matteo Maria Boiardo, Orlando Innamorato (Italian; poetry; outstanding)

472  Matteo Maria Boiardo, Orlando Innamorato (re-read; poetry; outstanding)

473  Lydia Netzer, Shine Shine Shine (good but somewhat flawed debut novel)

474  Peter Heller, The Dog Stars (very good debut novel; made year-end list)

475  Catherynne M. Valente, The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making (re-read; YA; very good)

476  Catherynne M. Valente, The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There (YA; liked this even better than the first volume; made year-end list)

477  Beatrix Potter, The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin (it has squirrels, therefore it shall be mandatory reading when the squirrels take over)

478  Kelly Barnhill, Iron Hearted Violet (very good; made year-end list)

479  Petê Rissatti, Réquiem: sonhos proibidos (Portuguese; very good; made year-end list)

480  Luiz Bras, Sozinho no deserto extremo (Portuguese; very good; made year-end list)

481  Luís de Camões, Os Lusíadas (Portuguese; poetry; outstanding)

482  Luís de Camões, Obras completas de Luís de Camões, Tomo II (Portuguese; poetry; excellent)

483  Jesse Bullington, The Folly of the World (very good; honorable mention on a year-end list)

484  Nick Tosches, Me and the Devil (very good; made year-end list)

485  K.J. Bishop, That Book Your Mad Ancestor Wrote (review forthcoming; made two year-end lists)

486  Ludovico Ariosto, Orlando Furioso, Part I (re-read; poetry; one of my all-time favorites)

487  Ludovico Ariosto, Orlando Furioso (Italian; poetry; one of my all-time favorites)

488  Ludovico Ariosto, Orlando Furioso, Part II (re-read; poetry; one of my all-time favorites)

489  Adonis, Selected Poems (excellent)

490  Jeff VanderMeer, The Book of Lost Places (I think this is Jeff's second book ever published; good, but shows promise of his later, more mature work)

491  Sergio Chejfec, My Two Worlds (very good)

492  Eddie Campbell, Alec:  How to Be an Artist (graphic novel; very good tale told in second person future voice of the history of graphic novels)

493  Leena Krohn, Tainaron (review forthcoming)

494  Anonymous, La Spagna (Italian; poetry; very good)

495  Simón Bellido and Josué Ramos, Planes B, volumen I (anthology; Spanish; good but uneven)

496  Ian Sales, Adrift on the Sea of Ruins (despite not being interested much in space/astronaut fictions after Challenger, this was a good, short read)

497  Jeff VanderMeer, Veniss Underground (re-read; very good)

498  Samuel Delany, Through the Valley of the Nest of Spiders (already reviewed)

499  Felix Gilman, The Rise of Ransom City (very good; honorable mention on year-end list)

500  Haracio Castellanos Moya, El arma en el hombre (Spanish; very good)

501  Alejo Carpentier, El acoso (Spanish; very good)


Now to see how many fewer books I read in 2013.  After two years of reading 500+ books (and 3 out of 4 years), I might just ease off reading this year and only read a few dozen at most.  We'll see...